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Leafs rally from three-goal deficit but lose in shootout

But the fact they got to overtime at all in a game where they trailed by three before the halfway mark was perhaps Toronto’s most satisfying part of this early season.

Ultimately, the Ottawa Senators prevailed 5-4 in a shootout on Saturday night — the overtime session solved nothing — but the Maple Leafs showed perseverance for a change, earning a point while rallying from deficits of 3-0 and 4-3.

“We found a way to make an evening that looked like it was going very poorly into an evening that went better than it looked like it was going,” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. “We have a tendency when things go bad, we seem to feel bad, we seem to be fragile, we don’t just keep playing. We kept playing (Saturday). I would have loved to have won the game. We should have won the game.”

A single point and an 0-2-1 start will have to do.

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And it happened in the strangest of ways. Daniel Winnik tied the game at 16:12 of the third on a goal he knew went in. Linemate Brad Boyes knew it went in. Most everybody else knew it too, but the officials waved it off and the play continued while Winnik and Boyes celebrated.

“It was almost an embarrassing moment, like: ‘Did I actually score? Am I the guy that just celebrated and didn’t score?’ ” Winnik said. “It’s the most confused I’ve ever been.”

The horn ultimately blew a half-minute later to stop play as the league’s head office had reviewed the play and noted the puck had entered and exited the net very quickly after hitting the casing of the in-goal camera.

Winnik’s goal was the Leafs’ second rally. Ottawa scored three power play goals in the first five minutes of the second period, but the Leafs caught up on goals by Joffrey Lupul, Tyler Bozak and Peter Holland, before Mark Stone restored the Senators’ lead.

Mike Hoffman was Ottawa’s difference maker in the shootout.

But the it was the three-on-three overtime that had the Air Canada Centre buzzing. It got off to a slow start, with Babcock sending out two checkers — Winnik and Nick Spaling — along with Morgan Rielly to start. But Ottawa had its top line out.

“In the summer, we talked about the three-on-three and I was in the meetings thinking the top guys are going to play forever,” Winnik said. “I knew there would be matchups. We were out against (Kyle) Turris and Stone all night.

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“It was a little nerve-wracking, not going to lie. Not much happened when we were out there, but that’s what we were going for. If they’re not scoring, we’re fine having the puck.”

Fans actually booed the slow start as the Leafs foiled the Senators.

Then the action opened up. A 2-on-1 one for the Leafs, a 3-on-1 for Ottawa, a breakaway for Boyes and a follow-up rebound by Holland.

“A lot of skating,” Holland said. “I think I went up and back about three times. I was pretty tired by the end of it. It was a lot of fun. I think it was cool for the fans to see that much open ice. It’s pretty wide-open hockey.”

The Maple Leafs switched to Senators-killer James Reimer to start in net — he had been 11-3-1 against Ottawa coming into the game. Reimer didn’t allow a goal on the first shot, as batterymate Jonathan Bernier had the first two games.

But he did give up the first three goals — all in the second period — as the Leafs ran into trouble with penalties and found no way to kill them.

It was an opportunity for Reimer to show Babcock what he could do, gain his confidence and maybe be more than a backup.

“We tied. A shootout is a shootout,” Reimer said. “I thought we played a good game. Their fourth goal was a lucky goal. For me, I don’t want to let in four goals. But sometimes that happens and you have to lean on your boys to score four.

“It was one of those nights where it could be easy to not give it your all. But to see how hard they worked and didn’t let each other down, I’m really happy with that.”

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